Field of the Inventions
The present inventions relate to saddled vehicles such as those driven by a driver sitting on a saddle-type seat of the vehicle and steering with a bar-type steering handle.
Description of the Related Art
In two-wheeled vehicles such as motor scooters or motorcycles equipped with a transmission having an automatic gear ratio control mode, it can be difficult for a driver to apply engine braking at an intended timing when travelling in an automatic gear ratio control mode. Accordingly, in some such vehicles, it can be necessary for the driver to apply the engine brake by manually switching a transmission to a lower gear ratio after switching to the manual gear ratio control mode. In such vehicles, such requirements can cause inconveniences in operation and thus inferiority in operability because of the necessity to switch to a manual gear ratio control mode before applying the desired engine braking.
To solve the above drawbacks, Patent Document JP 2009-156448 A describes a two-wheeled vehicle which can shift-down at least two gear steps or more when a driver's intention is input through an operation means in order to apply engine braking without the need to manually switch from an automatic to a manual gear change mode. More particularly, in the two-wheeled vehicle of the prior art noted above, the transmission can be shifted to a pseudo manual gear ratio control mode by performing operational input of the brake lever and the throttle grip in which the manual gear ratio control can be attained by performing a predetermined operational input of the throttle grip under the pseudo manual gear ratio control mode.
In addition, technology for changing a gear ratio in accordance with operational conditions of two brake devices is disclosed in Patent Document JP 02-102969 A. According to this prior art, it is possible to instantaneously apply engine braking by performing shift-down with operation of the two brake devices.